For many years, the only reel known in the angling art of casting a baited fishline was what is commonly referred to as a free spool reel. Briefly this is an instrument embodying a spool mounted on a shaft disposed normal to the axis of the fishing pole upon which the reel is secured. The spool was free to turn during casting allowing the fishline to pay out therefrom dependent upon the weight and momentum of the bait and the like at the free end of the fishline. Its greatest fault was the occurence of a backlash due to failure of the angler to keep the line taut. In other words, any slack in the line as the reel was turning in a payout direction due to the initial thrust and; momentum created, caused the loose line to wind back upon the free turning reel resulting in an ultimate tangle of the line on the reel.
To overcome such backlashing of the line, an angler had to become adept at thumbing the reel as it paid out line to prevent any slack in the fishline. Later some reels were provided with a brakelike drag to prevent slack in the line or overriding thereof relative to the out paying reel. Nevertheless it still called for skill while handling the reel and much casting distance was lost due to the added drag.
For retrieving the fishline, the free spool reel is connectable by a clutch or gear arrangement to a hand crank for rewinding the line back upon the reel.
Later in the angling art of line casting there was developed what is known as a spinning reel. In the spinning reel device, the spool is stationary and has its axis disposed parallel to the axis of the pole and open ended outwardly of the pole upon which the reel is secured. A crank handle is arranged on the device to turn on an axis at right angles to the spool and pole. During casting of the fishline from a spinning reel the line pays out freely from the open end of the spool substantially parallel to its axis and out through grommets on the pole. This in effect minimized and eliminated the backlash fault of prior known free spool reels and has made casting more pleasing and pleasureful for the angler.
To retrieve the fishline on the spool of a spin type reel a wire bale or hook is drivingly connected to the crank handle. The wire bale is disposed to turn in an orbit about the periphery of the fixed spool by manual operation of the hand crank, to rewind the fishline upon the spool. However on retrieval, i.e., reeling in the fishline, a problem does occur due to the requirement that the incoming line being substantially parallel to the pole and reel shaft, it must be fed at a right angle onto the spool, i.e., 90.degree. with the respect to the axis of the spool. To accomplish this, the spinning reel device must have the wire bale or steel hook arranged radially outward from the spool to train the line about an orbital path and make it approach the spool from one side of the periphery thereof. This means that the incoming fishline must bear hard at a sharp right angle as it turns over the orbiting steel bale or hook. This gyration of the fishline as it bears hard upon the bale or hook, tends to put a twist on the line; cause it to wear; become flattened out of its normal round configuration; and most importantly puts a resistive load on the manipulation of the hand crank by which the wire bale is being turned during retrieval.
The present invention seeks to eliminate the faults of both the free spool and the fixed spool of a spinning reel while retaining the advantages of both in a common structure.